Pop World Cup 2014

14Jul 14

ENGLAND are the winners of the Pop World Cup 2014. Congratulations to manager Ronald and the team: Disclosure, Natalia Kills, Mutya Keisha Siobhan, AlunaGeorge, Years & Years, Foals, and Katy B and Jessie Ware.

Nigeria (managed by Cis) are runners-up, and Chile (managed by lartsaegis) take third place.

8Jul 14

At last! The anthems are sung, the teams are on the pitch, and the Macarena Stadium in Los Del Rio is about to play host to the greatest event in global pop, the Pop World Cup Final. Joining us are.. YOU, in the comment(ary) box and the voting poll – below the cut – and our finalists, England – managed by Ronald, and Nigeria – managed by Cis. Nigeria are the defending champions, England the sleeping giants who may finally have awoken. Only you can decide the outcome.

Below the cut are our two songs and managerial comments, as well as the all-important poll. The match will end on Sunday evening, exactly as that other World Cup final kicks off. Well done both sides for getting here, and may the best team win.

3Jul 14

Welcome back, my friends, to the competition that is about to end. Rather behind schedule – not quite a month! – but when the football world cup has been this entertaining who can blame us? There are two matches to go. On Monday we’ll put up the POP WORLD CUP FINAL – England v Nigeria – which will then be set to end at the time the actual World Cup final kicks off (it’s almost as if we planned it). But before, this traditional appetiser, the third place match between our losing semi-finalists, lartsaegis’ Chile and Wichita Lineman’s Iran.

Both teams have given us some real highlights at this Pop World Cup. Chile got off to a slow (or maybe just long) start, gathering steam through the group stage before taking down the much-fancied Cameroon and Japan teams in the group stage. They’ve had a magnificent run, as have Iran, who have mostly stuck to an unusual and beguiling electro-tactic that neither the Swiss nor the Koreans could find a way past. In the end it was Foals who ended their winning run.

So now these sides take the pop stage one final time, and fight it out for third place. Iran have been here before, in 2006, Chile are new to this level. Tracks and poll below the cut – good luck both managers!

10Jun 14

هشت سال از صدمه هرگز من خواب – for those of you not fluent in Farsi that is (er, according to Google Translate) “Eight years of hurt never stopped me dreaming”. Yes, Iran – managed by Wichita Lineman – are back in the semi-finals of the Pop World Cup after their 2006 defeat at this stage, but standing in their way is England, managed by Ronald, at this stage for the first time in the PWC era. And whoever wins will have to take on defending champions Nigeria, aiming to make it two in a row after very narrowly beating Chile – who will fight the loser here for third.

SF2: England v Iran - Which track do you pick?

ENGLAND: Foals 56%

IRAN: Persian Empire ft Rai 44%

Total Voters: 89

Poll closes: 16 Jun 2014 @ 13:00

Loading ...

We’ll run this game until Monday – songs under the cut and our final farewell to South Korea.

4Jun 14

Four more games to go in this Pop World Cup, and our first semi-final sees lartsaegis’ Chile face off against Cis’ Nigeria. Nigeria got here with a win over Ghana, and as defending champions will be used to the pressure at this level. Chile, meanwhile, enjoyed a narrow victory over Japan and will hope to be peaking at the right time for another giant-killing.

SF1: Chile v Nigeria - Which track do you pick?

NIGERIA: Starboy ft LAX & Wizkid 55%

CHILE: Kali Mutsa 45%

Total Voters: 49

Poll closes: 9 Jun 2014 @ 21:00

Loading ...

The match is up until Monday – songs are below the cut, along with a tribute to quarter-finalists Croatia.

28May 14

Chile, Nigeria and – as of this afternoon – England are through to the Pop World Cup semi-finals. One more team will join them – Wichita Lineman’s Iran, who thumped Switzerland in the second round, or Iain Mew’s South Korea, who dispatched the USA. There are no underdogs at this level of Pop Football, with Iran a previous semi-finalist and South Korea widely tipped to go all the way. We expect a tight battle between these two sides.

QF4: Iran v South Korea - which do you pick?

IRAN: The Waterfront 58%

SOUTH KOREA: Big Bang 42%

Total Voters: 55

Poll closes: 2 Jun 2014 @ 15:00

Loading ...

This match ends on Monday – go below the cut for songs, and a farewell to Ghana.

23May 14

Our third quarter-final – and the last two European teams left in the competition. Croatia (managed by intothefireuk) are a team with momentum on their side, sneaking through Group A at the last second and then seeing off the Netherlands in the second round. England (managed by Ronald) find themselves at the treacherous Quarter-Final stage after a solid win over Cote D’Ivoire. The winner here faces either Iran or South Korea in the semis.

QF3: Croatia v England - which do you pick?

ENGLAND: Years & Years 74%

CROATIA: Pips Chips And Videoclips 26%

Total Voters: 65

Poll closes: 28 May 2014 @ 15:00

Loading ...

This match runs until Wednesday – songs below the cut, and a farewell to the loser of our first quarter-final…

21May 14

The last two African teams remaining in the tournament clash in our second quarter-final. Ghana (managed by Jonathan Bogart) made it here by beating Algeria, while defending champions Nigeria (managed by Cis) saw off France. The winner faces either Japan or Chile for a place in the final.

QF1: Ghana v Nigeria - which do you pick?

NIGERIA: Seyi Shay 58%

GHANA: Guru 42%

Total Voters: 52

Poll closes: 26 May 2014 @ 15:00

Loading ...

This match runs till Monday. Below the cut you’ll find the songs, the team talks, and a (slightly late) farewell to the USA…

19May 14

Welcome back to the Pop World Cup, and to the first of our four quarter finals. Chile (managed by lartsaegis) reached here via what turned out to be the narrowest Round of 16 win, against Cameroon. Japan (gaffer: Patrick St Michel) saw off Uruguay more convincingly. The winner of this game faces Nigeria or Ghana in the semis.

QF1: Chile v Japan - which do you pick?

CHILE: Javiera Mena 53%

JAPAN: Perfume 48%

Total Voters: 80

Poll closes: 23 May 2014 @ 15:00

Loading ...

This match runs until Friday! Both teams’ songs are below the cut, along with a belated farewell to Switzerland…

Featured Posts

9 Jan 2004
Independence Day. Isn’t it marvellous? Hurrah hurrah let’s kill the stripper and those hippies! That’s the kind of morals I WANT from my films! Until the aliens bugger up by deciding just to kill EVERYBODY. Where’s the subtlety, the art, the je ne sais quoi indeed about that? Who cares when we have plucky heroes […]

23 Aug 2005
One of the happy upshots of the Bosman Ruling which we have been living with for almost ten years, is the effect it has on players prices near the end of their contract. Take Clinton Morrison (Birmingham wish someone would) the Republic of Ireland striker. Bought for a club record of £4.25 million three years […]

24 Dec 1999
Low’s Christmas tree is a simple one, with eight plain wooden baubles. The band write four tracks themselves, offer interpretations of two carols and crooners’ favourite “Blue Christmas”, and nobody’s bothered to take credit for “Taking Down The Tree” (but it sounds like one of Low’s own). The record is packaged – beautifully – like […]

20 Jun 2005
Last week saw the release of not one, but two films about previous films. And I don’t mean Batman Begins (which should be retitled Batman Starts for Essex). Inside Deep Throat, a documentary about the making of and the effect of notorious porn film Deep Throat. And Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles film about the making […]

13 Feb 2000
England is DIFFERENT (or SPECIAL if you want to be polite) to everywhere else for many reasons, but one is because our music “industry” (it’s not an industry – making baked beans is an industry, and nobody does THAT in their spare time, writes fanzines about it or has them poured over themselves at weddings. […]

4 Feb 2014
#757, 25th January 1997 In 1997, talking about music on the Internet means USENET, a Gormenghast of diverging and reconnecting fora whose goblin tribes gleefully rampage through each other’s chosen lairs: a thread will start on alt.music.prodigy, then careen into alt.music.spice-girls via alt.music.misc, while Discordians and trolls plot to spread it still further. Still, there […]

9 Jul 2010
So we get a winner, down on Brewer Street in Soho, the Glasshouse Stores was voted the number one pub of the noughties by those of us who voted. A nice pub sure, but so much better than the others? To find out why it scored so highly I thought I would canvas a number […]